Downfall
by BellaSalvatore1918
Summary: Finally returning from the Newman Academy, Lauren Gilbert tries desperately to get back into the routine of her old life. When she finds out that her fraternal twin, Elena, is keeping major secrets from her, "routine" becomes something completely different. But if vampires, witches, and werewolves prove to be real, can there be other forces of nature, too? Damon/OC
1. The Long Way Home

**Disclaimer: I don't own The Vampire Diaries; unfortunately, all of those rights go to Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson. However, I do own the storyline that I create along with my original characters. **

* * *

**PART ONE**

**Chapter 1: The Long Way Home**

"_Hey, honey. How was practice?" Miranda Gilbert questioned her daughter as she jumped into the back of the sedan. The sweaty brunette in the backseat tossed her sports bag and her tennis racket to the empty seat beside her. In the driver's seat, Grayson Gilbert shifted the car into reverse and began to pull out of the parking space in front of the tennis courts._

"_It was okay," the teenager answered, though her words were drained of any life. The practice that Miranda was referring to had worn her out so badly, rendering the tennis prodigy exhausted to the max. At first, the practice had pumped her adrenaline as it normally did, but after a while, it was just tiring. The warm breeze of the mid-January air didn't help much with her drowsiness. _

"_You excited for sectionals in the spring?" Grayson asked, turning a corner as they made their way back home. The girl sighed and nodded, despite the lightheaded feeling she received. Because of the way her head felt during the gesture, the teenager bent down while she responded, her hands going into her sports bag. _

"_I am," she responded, and her hands blindly searched the sports bag for the round bottle she was looking for. "Even more excited for regionals. Hey, where's Elena?" _

"_She went to a party with Matt," Miranda explained. Her daughter finally found the water bottle she was searching for and sighed in relief at the sight of the clear liquid. "She said she'll try and make it back as soon as she can. But your Aunt Jenna and Jeremy are at home making dinner for us." _

"_Mm," hummed the girl as she opened her water bottle and pulled it to her lips. But the second the warm water finally inched its way up into her mouth, everything changed in the blink of an eye. The car came to a crushing halt and the control of the wheel was lost. It was all a blur, but the sounds were evident. A piercing noise sounded—a screech—just as the car began to spin entirely out of Grayson's control._

Lauren Gilbert jolted from her seat on the train as it came to a screeching halt against its track. She was completely taken off guard as to where she was, but it only took her a moment to recognize that she was on a train. Passengers of the train were staring at her for a moment, silently drawing their own conclusions and then turning away because they had better things to attend to. She didn't pay any mind to them and focused on trying to recover from her mind's recollection of the car crash from that dreaded night ten months ago.

She stepped off of the train with her sole suitcase in her left hand and her tennis racket duffel bag over her shoulder. Unlike some of the passengers on the train, she didn't look for any family members or friends waiting to pick her up from the platform as the train from Emporia, VA to Schuyler, VA.

Aunt Jenna had said that she would cut class to pick her up at the train station, but Lauren had insisted upon taking a taxi back to the house. Though reluctant, Jenna didn't have much of a choice in the matter. As a part-time student and full-time guardian, she already had her hands full as it was.

After stepping off the platform, she went to the taxi line and grabbed the first open taxi she saw. She had enough money for the ride from Schuyler to Mystic Falls, courtesy of Jenna, who sent her the money the previous week when Lauren told her guardian that she wanted to come back home. Lauren had spent the past ten months at the Newman Academy in Emporia, away from the trouble of Mystic Falls. Since the night of the accident, everyone had treated her differently. Within a week after the funeral for Miranda and Grayson Gilbert, Lauren had completely lost it. It was her own decision to finish sophomore year at boarding school and no one else's. Though it was a change no one wanted, Jenna supported her niece's decision to get some time away from the gossip and the pitying looks.

It was different than her siblings' experience. Though Jeremy, her younger brother, and Elena, her fraternal twin sister, were grieving as well as she was, it wasn't the same. They mourned over the death of their parents while Lauren suffered over the trauma that came with watching her parents die and almost dying, herself.

For the first few weeks after the crash, the guilt consumed her. She didn't understand how it was fair that she was able to live and her parents suffered the consequences of the accident. Over time, though, she began to see that there was nothing she could do about the situation. She had survived, they hadn't. For the rest of her life, she'd have to look in the mirror and face herself knowing this, but there was nothing she could do to change that fact. It was a hardship that was uncommon when it came to most seventeen-year-old girls, but it was irreversible. There was that big "what if" question that always haunted her mind: what if she hadn't decided to practice that night? Her parents would still be alive and she wouldn't have to deal with the post-traumatic dreams she was having.

Tennis was a sport that she'd been playing since she was a little girl. People always said that the second she picked up a racket was the second she became a star. Her parents never pushed, and Lauren supposed that was what actually brought her closer to the game. Even though she played it competitively, she always found it more of a recreation than anything. It came effortless to her despite the hours upon hours of sweat she shed playing the rigorous game. At boarding school, the tennis season was her outlet concerning her personal issues. But she never lost a game at boarding school, oddly enough. And she'd been more competitive than she'd been in months.

The car ride to Mystic Falls wasn't long at all—a fifteen-minute drive at most. The taxi driver was entertaining enough, and the highway took her mind off of most things she was worried about. It was Friday, so she would have two days to get used to Mystic Falls again before jumping back into the frenzy of Mystic Falls High. In a small town like hers, news of a big event like two members of the Gilberts, a founding family, being killed on impact travels fast. And as that news travels, so did the pity. Since she'd prolonged it for ten months, it was sure to hit her like a boulder. Lauren convinced herself to take a page out of Elena's book—smile and say "I'm fine" until your tongue blatantly falls out from the obvious lie.

After she paid the cab driver and thanked him, Lauren watched as the rental service fled the neighborly street and then turned around to face her home. It was one of the bigger houses in Mystic Falls, complete with a wraparound porch and Victorian-style columns lining the entire edge. Since she'd made the decision to come home, Lauren had dreamed of the moment when she'd see her house again. That moment lived up to the standards she'd created when she first decided she wanted to leave the Newman Academy for boring old Mystic Falls again. However, sometimes boring is exactly what a girl needs.

Before she'd even taken two steps up the long walkway to the house, the front door swung open, catching Lauren off guard. She stopped in her place and was left to watch as someone ran out of the house while still minding the steps leading down from the porch. Elena emerged with a genuine smile on her face and Lauren copied it. They weren't identical, but if looked upon at the right angle, one could easily be mistaken for the other. That was the beauty of fraternal twins—they weren't mistaken for each other, but it could be done. They were individual, but if they wanted, they didn't have to be. Despite the long distance the twins had put between each other since the year had started, Elena rushed into her sister's arms and greeted her with a giant, long-awaited hug.

"You couldn't wait just another minute, Elena?" Lauren chuckled, but dropped her suitcases and hugged Elena back. Elena let out a deep breath.

"No. I really couldn't. Honestly, I was debating on skipping to pick you up from Newman myself, but Jenna insisted that I go to school," Elena answered, pulling back. Lauren shrugged, as if understanding Jenna's reasoning. Elena sighed, relieved. "But you're home now."

"Correction, I'm _outside." _She gathered her things again and gestured to the house. "Let's change that, shall we?"

"Wait," Elena said, blocking her from taking another step forward. Lauren raised an eyebrow tiredly as Elena bit down on her lip. "I'm not the only one home."

"Yeah…I kind of figured. Jeremy goes to the same high school as we do—" Lauren shook her head, but Elena cut her off to correct her.

"No, I mean _besides_ Jeremy. I…have someone you need to meet," she said hesitantly. At this, Lauren studied her sister's face and fell silent, trying to piece the puzzle together. Elena fell silent, too, waiting for Lauren to connect all the dots. It took her merely seconds before Elena's fraternal twin straightened and widened her eyes.

"You brought a _boy _for me to meet?" Elena nodded. "Since when did you get a boyfriend?"

Elena shrugged. "Since a while. I would've told you, but…it was…_complicated _for a long time." There was a double meaning to her words, and Lauren would've asked, but Elena bulldozed the sentence with another one. "So he's inside and he really wants to meet you."

Lauren's brown eyes flickered over Elena's face, studying her sister's features. It was the first time in a long time that Lauren saw that expression over Elena's face—the expression that came along with being in love. She'd stuck around long enough after the accident to watch Elena self-destruct her already rocky relationship with Matt Donovan, their childhood best friend. It was nice to see Elena…_happy _again. But the expression that Elena wore wasn't so much happiness, but more like she'd been fulfilled. As if her life had some newfound purpose.

Good for her.

"Well, let's not keep him waiting, then," Lauren suggested and gave Elena a smile. Her sister returned the gesture and they both turned to walk up to the house. Lauren pulled her suitcase up the stairs of their porch and Elena took the tennis duffel from Lauren's shoulder in attempt to do something useful. After finally making their way up onto the porch, Elena pushed open the already cracked front door and put down the tennis duffel on the couch in the small living room area by the door.

"Jeremy!" Elena shouted to capture their little brother's attention. Lauren stepped through the threshold of her house, pulling her suitcase along with her. She noticed that there was a stranger standing in the hallway leading to the kitchen, and she had to admit, it was hard _not _to stare. He was handsome, had a strong build, and even his _hair _managed to somehow make her approve. He had a kind face and an even kinder, shy smile. Lauren didn't even know her sister's boyfriend's name and she liked him already.

But before Elena could get a chance to introduce her boyfriend, Jeremy came trotting down the stairs, already in relax-mode from being out of school on a Friday. Though he was a typical male teenager who wouldn't be caught dead shouting out his sister's name like he'd been waiting all day for her return, he still stepped off the bottom stair and pulled his older sister into a hug.

A light laugh escaped Lauren's lips as she squeezed her brother. "Hey, Jer."

"Lauren," Jeremy returned, squeezing her back. They pulled away from each other and Lauren eyed her brother with narrowed eyes and pointed.

"I thought I _told _you to stop growing. You're already taller than me _and _Elena."

Jeremy laughed. "And you would think all that tennis would stretch you out a bit, right?" Lauren rolled her eyes and scoffed, turning herself once she remembered that there was someone else with them.

The Gilbert opened her mouth and inhaled, looking at Stefan. "And you must be this famous boyfriend I've heard…_so _much about," she lied, her eyes cutting to Elena and then back to Elena's picturesque boyfriend. Stefan nodded and held out his hand.

"Stefan."

"Lauren," the teenager responded, taking Stefan's hand. Stefan pulled back and looked at Elena and then over at her twin, sighing.

"Wow. You two do look a lot alike. It's so uncanny." Lauren could sense a double meaning in the words, and she could see Elena elbow Stefan and laugh to herself for a moment. Lauren thought it was strange, but she had absolutely no time to deal. "Elena's been talking about you nonstop."

_I wish I could say the same, _Lauren thought to herself, but she couldn't say anything about it or it'd be rude. Elena's "complicated" relationship with this supermodel image for a boyfriend had apparently taken a one-eighty and had fixed itself to not be complicated anymore.

"Yeah. I bet everyone at the academy still remembers her name from all my stories," Lauren admitted, causing both sisters to laugh. Stefan smiled genuinely down at Elena as if he was enjoying watching her converse with her sister and as if it were a rare thing.

"Hey, Lauren, you've got to be hungry or something," Jeremy interrupted, walking up behind his sister and capturing her attention. "Do two-hour train rides serve meals? Whatever. I could make some Hot Pockets or something," he offered.

"Actually, I'm good for now. I should probably just get upstairs and…_unpack_." She sighed at the end, looking down at her suitcase that she was dreading to open. She could just see inside of the bag—eons of checkered skirts, white button-down shirts, and blue sweater vests mixed in with a bunch of active wear, sports bras, and just a few articles of normal clothes such as jeans and nice t-shirts.

Lauren had no idea what she was going to do with the eight three-piece outfits that all looked the same, and that's what was so distressing about unpacking. All of her clothes—her real clothes—packed her drawers of her dresser full.

Jeremy shrugged. "I'm still hungry. Elena? Stefan?" the youngest Gilbert asked, and both Elena and Stefan shook their heads. Once Jeremy had gone into the kitchen, Stefan inhaled and looked over at Elena.

"I probably should get going, anyway." He looked over at Lauren and gave her another generous smile. "It was nice to meet you, Lauren."

"You too, Stefan," Lauren replied as Stefan bent down and kissed Elena quickly—a parting gift, really—and then showed himself out. Once he was gone, Lauren turned to Elena and gave a look of approval.

"Nice," Lauren said simply, shrugging. Elena smiled and watched as Lauren grabbed her suitcase and started to make headway for the stairs.

"He is," Elena agreed as she walked up the stairs with Lauren, who easily dragged the suitcase with her at a reasonable pace. "He's sweet, he's funny, he's compassionate…"

"Sounds like the complete package," Lauren praised as she kicked open the door to her room. Hers was the one sandwiched between Elena and Jeremy's, but there was a bathroom that stood between her room and Elena's corner room that was shared by all three siblings. Elena leaned against the threshold of Lauren's room as the brunette walked into her untouched bedroom that felt crisp and new. She set the suitcase down on the bed, making it shudder, and Lauren let out a sigh. "Home sweet home."

The two sisters stood in silence, an understanding passing between the two of them. It was different now—it was no longer the same home. Their parents were gone and that change was enough to wreck a person's entire life. Elena and Jeremy never judged Lauren's decision to head off to boarding school because it was the best thing for her. Watching your parents die and knowing your parents died happened to be two completely different things.

"Good thing is, you don't have to go to school until Monday," Elena pointed out lightly. "Which kind of reminds me…did you tell Caroline about coming back?"

"No, I completely spaced. I was thinking about calling her on the train but—" Lauren cut herself off and looked up at Elena, who was biting down on her lip. "You told her, didn't you?"

"Yeah…"

"How mad is she?"

"Pretty mad," Elena confessed. "But nothing a few gossip stories about some snotty rich tennis kids at Newman can't fix. She'll probably call you in a little bit."

Lauren sighed, this time out of exhaustion, and rubbed her head. "All right. Well, you're right about one thing. At least school's not until Monday." Elena nodded in agreement and Lauren peeked up at her sister. "Is Tanner still there? Because if he is—"

"Tanner's kind of…" Lauren waited for Elena to complete her thought and watched as Elena tried to form the words carefully as she finished, "…dead."

A silence loomed over them, and Lauren opened her mouth, hesitantly pausing before speaking. "Okay…it's really _rude _to speak ill of the dead, but you know how I feel about him."

"Yeah, it was…pretty terrible, but I understand," Elena admitted, but Lauren knew that she felt bad about Tanner's death. Actually, it was quite a shock to Lauren. Coach Tanner was a cruel, vicious teacher and coach, but that didn't make her any less sorry for him. She was about to ask what happened when Elena sighed and straightened. "All right. Well, I'll leave you to unpack. Have fun."

"Thanks," Lauren muttered and watched as Elena turned and went downstairs. Lauren closed her door so she could have some solitude while unpacking, and then she went straight to her bed and opened her suitcase. Sure enough, everything she'd imagined was in the suitcase _was _actually in the suitcase. A pile of checkered skirts, a pile of white shirts and blue sweater vests, and one small pile of miscellaneous articles of clothing rested inside of the suitcase. The brunette sighed deeply and set straight to work on unpacking.

It was after she'd put all of her toiletries into the bathroom when Lauren came back into her room and heard her phone buzzing on the nightstand while it charged. She walked over to it, hoping to catch the phone before it cut off, and sure enough, she managed to do exactly that.

"Hello?" she asked into the phone.

"_So…when were you planning on telling me you came back? Or were you just going to wait until I saw you in the hallway on Monday?" _Caroline questioned pointedly over the line. Lauren rubbed her eyes and laughed lightly, shaking her head.

"I know. I'm a terrible friend. Sorry, Care; I've just been wrapped up lately. The board at Newman kept denying my request to transfer after the semester started. I practically had to beg," she admitted.

Caroline held no pity for her. _"Well, I know how you can make it up to me." _Of course. As usual, there was a catch. _"Meet me at the Grill in an hour so we can catch up." _

Lauren wanted to object, but she didn't see the harm in going to the Grill with Caroline. Besides, it would give her something to do. "Yeah, sure. I'll be there in an hour."

"_Bye!" _Caroline said cheerfully before hanging up on Lauren. Lauren put her phone back down onto the nightstand to let it charge without interruption and walked back to the Jack and Jill bathroom. She didn't look as bad as she thought she did—her hair was a little flat, but that could easily be solved. It was only a trip to the Grill to meet her friend, so she didn't bother changing. The jeans and casual t-shirt was enough for her to be satisfied, as it was for most athletes. The only thing she did was pull her hair up and tie it back so that her long, dark hair was gathered all in a tail on her head. But she returned to her bedroom and continued to unpack soon after pulling her hair back.

She ended up throwing all of her academy uniforms to the side of her closet in a space unseen by her so they were out of sight and out of mind. After the suitcase was completely empty, she stuck it at the top of her closet and shut the door. An hour had passed since she came home and thirty minutes had passed since Caroline called.

A soft knock sounded at the door just as Lauren was putting away spare items she'd left on her bed. She turned her head to see Jenna walk into the room, and immediately, a smile spread on her face. "Aunt Jenna!"

"Lauren!" Jenna exclaimed, pulling Lauren into a hug as soon as the teenager reached her aunt. "You don't know _how _happy I am that you decided to come home."

"You and me both," Lauren agreed with a sigh as she pulled back to look over Jenna. "I'm _really_ excited to see this…new and improved Jenna Sommers."

"For your information, I'm the best guardian _ever_," Jenna pointed out, frowning. "I mean…besides the fact that I fell for that whole woodshop bit and never realized Jeremy was cutting class…"

Lauren scoffed. "Yeah, well, we've all got to start somewhere." Lauren returned to her bed and finally put her last stray article away, rendering her duties complete.

"You finished unpacking?" Lauren nodded. "Cool. You want something to eat, or…?"

"Actually, Caroline called me and invited me to the Grill," the teenager told her, inhaling sharply. "I'm getting chastised for not telling her I was coming home."

Jenna made a piercing sound. "Ouch. Good luck with that." Lauren nodded and laughed at the same time, bowing her head. "Well, have fun."

"I will. And I won't be out too late, either," she reminded Jenna as the guardian began to leave Lauren's bedroom. Jenna swung herself back at the doorframe and gasped.

"Right. Don't stay out too late," she reiterated, earning a soft smile from Lauren before Jenna left the room.

The teenager knew that she had to get going soon, but before she did, she moved over to her bed and grabbed a picture frame that was sitting on her nightstand. The frame was a delicate bronze in her hand, but it was as good as new. Through the glass that was in the center of the frame, there was one of the last pictures her parents ever took with her, Jeremy, and Elena. It was a melancholy picture, but the memory was one of the happiest. Lauren remembered the moment like it was yesterday—eating cotton candy in the middle of the town square as the Founder's Day parade floats came by. She barely even remembered the fact that the next Founder's Day was just around the corner. It was always her father's favorite event. What's not to love? Cotton candy, Miss Mystic Falls, and the entire town gathering together for a day of fun. It was practically a Disney movie without the adversities.

A sad smile twitched at Lauren's lips, but she'd learned by now that it was time to stop dwelling on the sadness of her situation and start accepting the good memories for what they were. So, she bent back and returned the frame to its rightful place before grabbing her car keys that had been sitting on her dresser for ten months.

* * *

The Grill hadn't changed one bit since she'd been gone, and it was still the busiest building in Mystic Falls as ever. Scattered around the tables were families, teenagers, and even adults on dates. Lauren's chocolate eyes scanned the crowd for her blonde friend, but it was unnecessary. Caroline had already spotted her.

"Lauren!"

The seeking teenager turned her head to see Caroline Forbes over at a table in the middle of the Grill, waving Lauren over. Around the perky blonde were three other friends—Tyler Lockwood, Matt Donovan, and Bonnie Bennett. Lauren wanted to say that she was surprised to see the three extra parties, but it was far from a surprise. It was actually a surprise that Caroline _only _invited them to see her return. Bonnie probably talked her out of it.

Lauren made her way over to the table in the center of the grill, and she gave them all a smile. She greeted them, but Caroline pulled her into a hug as soon as she reached the bubble around the table. Caroline swayed them back and forth, practically crushing Lauren's lungs with her force.

"I'm _so _glad you're back," Caroline whimpered happily. Lauren chuckled against Caroline's frame.

"It's nice to see you, too, Caroline." She forced herself off of Caroline, but she couldn't deny the fact that she did miss her best friend. After her strong greeting with Caroline, she moved around the table, first to Tyler, then to Matt, and lastly to Bonnie. They all greeted her with genuinely happy smiles and words to express their affection. Finally, Lauren was allowed to sit down and order something to drink from the waitress, feeling like she was finally back home again.

"So…" Bonnie started, a small smile on her lips. Lauren looked over at her and raised an eyebrow. "Tell us! How was the academy?"

Lauren sighed. "Stressful. Trust me, boarding school isn't all fun and games."

"_That's _because you're not a dude," Tyler pointed out, taking a sip of his soda beside her. Lauren laughed slightly, always amused by Tyler's "player" attitude. "I mean, come on. A school where there are no parents and girls just down the hall? That's a guy's dream." He looked at Matt to back him up, and Matt just shook his head and laughed.

"You're disgusting," Caroline told Tyler with a little edge to her voice. Tyler just shrugged and Lauren leaned forward, shaking her head.

"I guess it _seems _like it's all about freedom and stuff, but it's really not. There may not be parents, but teachers and night guards are watching you twenty-four/seven." She looked at Tyler, who looked disappointed at the comment. "Well…then again, I practically _lived _at the tennis courts during the season, so it could've been possible."

"Yeah, how's that going?" Matt asked her, taking the topic off of what Tyler tried to divert it to. "Elena said you won a lot of games."

Lauren nodded and chuckled to herself. "Yeah, I…never _lost_," she admitted, shrugging. It was strange, she'd admit, but it wasn't all out of the ordinary. She could admit to herself that she was a great tennis player. "Even got a trophy. But I lost it in a poker game."

Tyler's mouth hung open. "There was a _poker _game? Like an after-hours poker game? Wait a second…_strip _poker?" His eyebrows wagged and Lauren tried to fight a laugh, but she couldn't.

"Yes, there was an after-hours poker game," Lauren admitted, earning eyes to widen all across the table. "The only reason I went was because my friend dragged me. But there was no stripping involved. Well, unless you count this drunken couple that kept trying to take each other's clothes off during the game. Needless to say, they were kicked out. But that was a special circumstance! All the teachers were at the summer party they were holding in the courtyard."

"Damn it, Lauren, you're going to make Tyler want to sign up for the next train out to Emporia," Matt chuckled, eyeing Tyler beside him. Tyler nodded.

"Hell yeah! Where can I get a ticket?"

She had plenty of stories to tell about boarding school, whether or not they were about raging parties after-hours while the chaperones were gone or asleep. She told them to her four friends, who listened as if she was telling an action-packed story about a trip to the Amazon. In the midst of a story about accidentally hitting the tennis coach with a tennis ball, Lauren was starting to lose her focus. Her eyes were wandering around the Grill, surveying the people and silently naming everyone she could remember while she went on about the story that she knew by heart. But when her eyes caught sight of the bar, she began to falter unintentionally. At the bar, there was a dark-haired man surveying the crowd, pulling a glass of bourbon to his lips and drinking like it was a normal routine. He looked too young and too gorgeous to be in a town like Mystic Falls, not to mention the leather jacket that just _screamed _out of place. Lauren didn't even realize that her words were escaping her as she unintentionally stared at the man up at the bar and accidentally caught sight of him, locking their eyes together.

"Lauren?"

Her eyes were torn quickly, to her relief. Tyler was raising an eyebrow at her and Lauren straightened in her seat. "Huh?"

"You were talking about serving the tennis ball to your partner and then…" Tyler trailed off, prompting her. Lauren cleared her throat and gave Tyler a small smile.

"Right. Sorry." Beside her, Caroline knotted her eyebrows and looked in the direction that Lauren was peeking at. The blonde could see the frame of the very bad man that Caroline was far from fond of.

"_Don't_," Caroline said, turning her head to Lauren and interrupting just as Lauren opened her mouth. The teenager closed it shut and raised an eyebrow.

"Uh…sorry…?"

"No, I mean…" Caroline jerked her thumb to the bar and Lauren glanced up to see the dark-haired man had swiveled in his chair and was now asking for another glass of bourbon. Lauren looked back down at Caroline. "He's bad."

Lauren's chocolate eyes moved from side to side. "Okay…I was just telling a story about hitting my tennis coach with a tennis ball so hard that her coffee spilled all over her clothes…"

Beside her, Tyler and Matt broke out laughing at the spoiler ending, interrupting Caroline's scolding to Lauren. Matt leaned forward with a chuckle.

"Wait, so it went _all _over her? How much trouble did you get in?"

Lauren shrugged. "Actually, she was pretty impressed with my aim. But I ended up having to clean the dining hall for two days." Matt laughed again and Lauren shook her head. "Okay. I'm done talking about me. What have I missed here?"

After a small silence, Bonnie spoke. "Well…we have a new kid at school that you're probably going to be seeing often. His name is—"

"Stefan?" Lauren filled in, causing Bonnie to raise an eyebrow. "Elena's boyfriend, right? I met him earlier today when I came home. Kind of put two and two together." She glanced across the table. "What else?"

"There have been these weird animal attacks all around town," Tyler told her, causing Lauren to become confused. "Yeah. They caught the animal that's been doing it, but it was some scary shit. Matt's sister was attacked at the back-to-school bonfire."

"Vicki?" Lauren asked, biting down on her lip. "Where is she, anyway? I thought she worked Friday nights." The whole entire table fell silent, causing Lauren to grow increasingly confused. Everyone avoided eye contact until Lauren spoke again. "What is it?"

"Vicki…Vicki ran away," Matt explained glumly. Lauren gasped.

"Oh, my God! That's terrible." Matt nodded, and Lauren tilted her head at Matt. "God, Matt. I'm so sorry." No matter what happened with her parents, Lauren would always feel bad for Matt. His father abandoned him, Vicki, and his mother when he was just a child. His mother, Kelly, was rarely ever home—never, in fact. Now Vicki? How awful.

"It's for the best, I guess," Matt said, shrugging. "I mean…I wish I could've done something to stop it, but she's gone. Hopefully she'll come back one day." Lauren nodded and muttered an agreement until Matt sighed. "Let's move on. Your sister quit cheerleading," he offered.

Lauren looked over at Caroline. "She did?" Caroline nodded, irritated. "What? Why?"

Caroline shrugged. "I don't know. Stefan, I guess. Whatever, with everything going on, she missed all the practices this summer so she was falling behind anyway." Lauren nodded slowly, and Caroline widened her eyes. "Oops. That came out _so _much more insensitive than I wanted it to be—"

Lauren laughed. "Caroline, it's fine." With Caroline, sensitivity wasn't a filter on her words. Everyone looked at Lauren, as if deciphering if her words were true. "Newman taught me more than just when to fold 'em. It's all good." She nodded once, as if trying to convince herself, but she didn't need convincing. She'd returned to Mystic Falls because she was ready to do so, not because she didn't have another choice.

Lauren gave everyone at the table a smile, and they returned it. When she looked up at the bar again, the dark-haired man was no longer sitting in the stool, but it was left spinning.

* * *

As promised, she didn't return home at a late hour. Actually, it was quite the opposite. Just an hour and a half after she'd left, Lauren returned back to the Gilbert house, where Jenna and Jeremy were making microwavable food and Elena had apparently gone out with her boyfriend for the night.

"I put your tennis racket in the closet," Jenna informed Lauren as the teenager sat down at the in-kitchen dining table next to Jeremy.

"Thank you," Lauren sung, grabbing a Hot Pocket on a plate in front of Jeremy, sneaking him a small smile.

"You're still trying out for the team this year, right?" Jenna asked as the microwave went off behind her, revealing a few more Hot Pockets on the plate. Lauren scoffed.

"Of course. It just sucks that we don't live in a state that plays tennis year-round. I'm just lucky the courts are open all year," the teenager confessed. Tryouts didn't start until the end of February, but if she waited a year between the beginnings of each season, she would be a terrible tennis player. Absolutely no hope of becoming the next Serena Williams.

Jenna nodded and hummed. "Yeah. I think the courts got a new pitching machine."

Lauren gave a nod of approval. "Nice. I'll check them out tomorrow. Figured I'd hit the courts early in the morning." She picked at a Hot Pocket before continuing. "Caroline told me that Elena quit cheerleading?"

Jeremy scoffed beside her. "Yeah. At the homecoming game." He rolled his eyes as if he was reliving some irritating memory.

"Well, I'm just glad you're not giving up on tennis," Jenna admitted, walking over to the table and sitting next to Jeremy. "Your parents always thought you were going to be a star one day."

Lauren shrugged and gave a small, sad smile. "Maybe one day I will," she offered and took a bite out of the microwavable food, just relieved to finally be where she belonged again.

* * *

**Hey, everyone. Sorry I'm publishing new stories left and right but once I had this idea I just needed to get it out. Don't worry, updates for my other stories are going to be coming real soon. However, I hope you all enjoyed this first chapter! This story isn't going to go off the episodes, but it'll have sort of the same idea. Except, there _will _be a different plot line, different villains, and even different supernatural creatures. It's going to get interesting real soon. Review if you can please!**

_**Love, **_

_**BellaSalvatore1918**_

_**X**_


	2. Hard Ball

**Hey guys! Here's the next chapter. For reference, things are going to move a lot quicker than the show, but there are some elements of the show that I explain in narration. But though there will be some events that happen in chapters that happen in the show, this story's going to have a whole different backdrop. It won't be all about vampires, witches, werewolves, and that stupid love triangle. Will there be a love triangle? A tiny, _tiny _one that isn't even relevant, to be honest. Regardless, this story is totally different from the show. I'm just letting you guys know so you don't think I'm going to go off the episodes or do something like I do in _Obliteration _where it's just partially AU. This is AU with new themes and some of the same parties/events that the show has.**

**One more thing, the whole "Katherine" business is a complicated story that will be revealed in later chapters. It's a mixture of the book version and the show version with an added twist of mine. Damon also doesn't really like Elena in this story, which is probably more believable than in the show, where he's like obsessed with her after knowing her for all of two seconds. By the way, sorry the chapter's short. Can't promise the next one will be longer, but I'll always try. **

**Anyways, hope you enjoy this! Review at the end if you can. **

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Hard Ball**

As backwards as it might seem, the tennis courts in the morning weren't as busy as the tennis courts in the afternoon. Though it would make more logical sense to practice the rigorous game at a cooler hour, the popular time to play happened to be when the sun beat down heavily on the players. However, for Lauren, she preferred the more unorthodox times. Her primary preference was in the evening, but in light of her return back home, she found that the best time would be to go when the sun was just rising in the east. It didn't change much—the decked-out in active wear Lauren Gilbert still remembered the wretched night that could've been completely avoided if she hadn't decided to play one more hour on the courts.

The pitching machine had been set up on the other side of the court, waiting for the flip of a switch for her to begin her intense training for the upcoming season. Granted, tryouts wouldn't be until February, but along with being good at it, she played tennis because it relaxed her. Took her mind off of things. Acted as a pastime _and _a sport.

After taking one long sip out of her water bottle, Lauren set the bottle down on the benches just at the net separating the courts and gathered her hair up in one full swoop. Once it was tied in place, she grabbed the tennis racket on the bench and set up the pitching machine on the other side of the court. It waited just long enough for her to get across the net, and she missed the first tennis ball it threw just so she could get in position. But by the time the second one came at her, she was in full swing. The pitching machine spat balls at her one at a time, pausing just long enough for her to have smacked the ball mid-air and wait for the next one in a crouching position. She ran across her side of the court trying to hit the balls that were sent to her, and she succeeded with grace. She slipped and slid a few times, but she was _good. _She'd always been good.

The cooler air became hotter as a result of the rising sun and her increased motion. By the time an hour passed and the people beside her had changed multiple times, Lauren was perspiring and getting parched. Desperately in need of a break, she stopped fighting the tennis balls that were thrown at her and instead let one go while she walked around the court to the pitching machine. The machine spat another ball at the empty side of the court just as she reached the switch, stalling the few balls left from making its debut. With a hard, dry swallow, Lauren turned and walked over to the bench where her water bottle, her phone, her empty tennis duffel, and her gym bag were all waiting for her return. As soon as she reached the bench, she grabbed the water bottle and took one long, desperate drink from it. Cool water coated her lips and dripped onto her chin as she drank carelessly, but she needed the water to get through the workout.

While she was drinking, Lauren bent down and pulled out her phone from her gym bag. Sure enough, there was a text from Jenna, asking how she was doing. There was also another from her sister, who asked Lauren to call her. After typing a quick response to Jenna with one hand, Lauren called Elena and put the phone on speaker so she didn't get sweat on the screen. The sweaty brunette drank her water and waited for Elena to pick up.

"_Hello?" _

"Mm." Lauren pulled the water bottle away from her mouth and put it down on the bench. She swallowed it down and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Hey, Elena. Sorry. What's up? You said to call you?"

"_Oh! Yeah. Well, I was wondering if you wanted to go out to lunch with Stefan and me today? Get to know him better?" _

Lauren shrugged as she shuffled her feet and spoke into the phone out in the air. "Sure, lunch sounds good. I'm actually down at the courts now so…"

"_Okay. So in another hour?" _Lauren looked at the time on her phone screen, and she saw that it was already approaching eleven o'clock. Time went fast whilst fighting a pitching machine.

"Sounds good. Can you pick me up here? Jenna dropped me off this morning on her way to class so I don't really have a ride back…"

"_Sure. I'll see you later." _After saying their goodbyes, Lauren and Elena both ended the phone call and Lauren was finally cooled off from her intense workout. But she had another hour at the courts until Elena came to pick her up, which meant she would return to practicing. Ten minutes later, Lauren had collected all of the tennis balls she'd wacked and refilled the pitching machine, this time switching the speed setting higher to increase her activity.

Two tennis balls were thrown the duration it took her to get onto the other side, and with a heavy inhale, Lauren braced for the next one.

* * *

The sound of people smacking tennis balls back and forth between each other filled Damon's ears as Sheriff Forbes brought him to the backside of the courts where the woods were. They trudged through the damp ground from the recent rain and Liz revealed to him a body hidden in the bushes. Two of her deputies surrounded the bodies, taking notes on it.

Damon eyed the neck wounds on the victim. Though the bite marks seems to be covered up, Damon was sure it was a vampire. And, despite what his brother would think, it wasn't him who attacked the twenty-something blonde compost.

"Ah," Damon flinched, taking in a sharp inhale as he and Liz bent down to the body. He looked up at her. "You think it's a vampire?"

"Definitely looks like it," Liz murmured, cocking her head to the side. Damon knew exactly who it was that was terrorizing the town with new bodies everywhere, and it was making him furious. He'd gone through so many lengths to keep the Council off of their backs, but this vampire was screwing it all up. All for one little solution to a pesky problem. Liz sighed at Damon. "The night court manager found it last night. Looks like whoever killed her did it the night before the manager found her."

Damon and Liz stood up from the body as the deputies in front of them pulled a tarp over the torn body. The two began to move out of the damp woods are and towards the courts, which weren't that far away from where the body was found. Because of the fact that the courts were occupied, Damon had to ask, "I don't mean to tell you how to run your job, Sheriff, but…shouldn't the courts be closed because of this?"

Sheriff Forbes inhaled deeply as she looked at the tennis players on the courts. "The owner of the courts is a personal friend of mine. She asked me not to close it down until tonight, so I agreed not to release the information until later. Besides, it'll give us time to come up with a story. I don't think this town will buy another animal attack."

Damon shook his head. "I thought I got rid of this problem when I staked the…_blonde _one," the raven-haired vampire whispered, his eyes looking around for any listening ears. It was true, he'd staked Lexi Branson, a personal friend of his brother's; and though Lexi was sort of an enemy of his, he hated to do it. Stefan was angry with him for a while—still is, seeing as he is convinced Damon has and will always be a monster—but since Elena decided to get back with his brooding brother, Stefan eased up.

Personally, Damon didn't understand Stefan's fascination with Elena. Sure, she looked like the vampire princess he and his brother once cared deeply for, but Elena was far from the same person—and not in the good way. Annoying. Righteous. Uptight. It was stressful. He constantly had to look over his shoulder with those two around, and it was getting on his last nerve. But, in a sense, that was what made them perfect for each other. It sickened Damon. Once he was done with trying to fix the mess in Mystic Falls his brother guilted him into mending, he was out the door.

"Well she must've turned someone," Sheriff Forbes told him, shrugging as if it were the only conclusion. Damon was sure it wasn't Lexi who turned the vampire after Stefan, Elena, and Damon, but someone _did _have to turn the vampire. Damon's only questions were "who" and "why".

Damon began to respond when something caught the corner of his eye. It was the girl from the Grill—the brunette sitting with Elena's friends and Caroline Forbes, the teenager that Damon tried and failed to kill because of his brother. Damon assumed that the girl with Caroline was Elena's sister because Stefan had said he was going to meet yesterday an hour or two before Damon took a trip out to the Grill to get a drink. She was vigorously rushing across the court, swinging her tennis racket against flying balls that were projected quickly by a pitching machine.

"Sheriff Forbes!" a deputy called out behind them, and Liz left Damon's side to tend to whatever the problem was while Damon just silently watched Elena's sister, realizing that she wasn't half bad. Actually, she was _good_—really good.

Lauren was completely oblivious to a man staring at her, as she had nothing else to focus on except the rigorous pace of the pitching machine. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth…it was an endless routine. But it was when she took her eye off of the pitching machine for just the mere _second _that she had to spare that she caught Damon, and recognized him immediately. Her focus was impaired, and as a punishment, she was socked right in the face by a tennis ball going at least twenty miles per hour.

Damon laughed, watching Elena's sister take the blowback from the tennis ball that had connected with her face seeing him, but she took it in stride. As another ball flew at her, she just ducked and dropped her racket on the tennis court before jogging over to the pitching machine. Damon, finding the whole situation amusing, walked up to the fence around the court and sauntered through the open fence door without an invitation.

"That _had _to have hurt," Damon called out as Lauren switched off the pitching machine just as it threw another ball to the other side of the court. It flew just by Damon, and he followed the tennis ball as it came to a stop and bounced on his side of the court. The red-jawed brunette just looked up at the stranger inviting himself into her court, probably realizing that the reason she got hit was because he distracted her. Lauren studied him, finding the stranger to be quite…well, _strange. _Regardless, she rubbed her jaw and walked towards the benches to grab her water bottle, where the stranger met her.

"It did," she told him, reaching down for her water bottle as she rubbed out her jaw.

Damon studied Elena's sister, and he found that she did look quite like the carbon copy, but she bore a great resemblance. He realized, quickly, that she wasn't just Elena's sister. She was Elena's twin. The vampire tilted his head at the sweaty brunette. "You know, you look a lot like someone I know—"

"Elena Gilbert?" Lauren finished, as if she had been asked the question countless times. He nodded. "Yeah. She's my fraternal twin. We look a _lot _alike for not being identical."

"That you do." The vampire glanced at the redness on her cheek. "You know…maybe you should put some ice on that or something," he suggested.

Lauren gulped down some water and kept pressure on the bruising, but she was sure it wasn't going to be an issue. When the water had gone down her throat and she was finally free to speak, she shook her head and wiped her mouth with her hand.

"It's fine. I've done so many times before I think I've built a tolerance."

The girl chuckled, putting her water bottle down on the bench again. Damon was enjoying this—Elena's twin was nothing like her sister. Unlike Elena, who quit cheerleading after a single _day _of trying, this girl was athletic. Fresh. Raw. Even though the red on her face was mostly because of the injury she'd sustained, there was blood rushing to her face because of the heat of the afternoon sun mixed in with the intensity of her tennis playing. It was a sight for sore eyes.

Lauren glanced up at Damon, squinting as the sun shone loudly behind his head. "Weren't you at the Grill last night?"

"I was." Damon watched her wait for him to recognize her. "Oh, right. Girl with the overly excited friends begging for boarding school stories."

The Gilbert raised an eyebrow. "You heard all that?"

"It was hard not to. I was no less than five feet away," the dark-haired vampire replied. A look of eased confusion crossed Lauren's face, but when she opened her mouth to say something, she caught sight of Elena and Stefan in her view. They pulled into the parking lot and got out of the car, which made Lauren realize that her time at the courts were up.

"My ride just got here," Lauren announced, turning her attention back to Damon. Damon turned around and looked in the direction she was staring to see his brother and Elena walking towards the court they were at. As soon as Stefan made Damon's presence, Damon could see Stefan pull Elena to a stop and start to grow worried. Damon sighed and rolled his eyes, turning around.

"Well, I have a dead body to attend to." Lauren opened her mouth to speak, confused, but Damon just took words from her. "See you around, Elena's twin."

"But—" Lauren started, but as soon as she opened her mouth, Damon was already out of the fenced-in court and was beginning to walk towards the woods just a couple yards away. Damon barely escaped the presence of his brother and Stefan's annoyingly overbearing girlfriend as they rushed up to catch him in the act of trying to converse with a pretty girl. Once Damon was gone, Lauren just scoffed. "Wow. Weird."

"Are you okay?" Elena panicked as she reached Lauren, a worried look in her eyes. Lauren was packing up her things, rubbing her jaw to ease some of the pain that still shot through her when she touched it.

Lauren peered up at Elena, confounded. "Um…yeah. Why?"

Elena was silent, but then she gestured to Lauren's jaw. "What happened?"

The twin sighed. "Oh, it was no big deal. I just got distracted and I missed it when the ball was pitched. It's fine."

It was then that Stefan approached Elena and Lauren, his eyes crazed with worry as well. "Is she okay?"

"She's fine," Elena murmured. Lauren just laughed.

"_What _is the big deal? It was just a tennis ball in the face! It's happened before…"

Stefan shook his head. "No, my…uh, my brother was here, that's all," he explained. Lauren cocked an eyebrow.

"That guy was your _brother_? You two look nothing alike."

"Well, we're brothers all right. And he's…well…" Stefan fished around for the right word, but Elena just took it out of his mouth.

"He's not someone you want to be around," Lauren's sister finished. As for the sweaty tennis player, she was just confused and tired. "But it doesn't matter. He's gone. Let's go get something to eat."

The other brunette shrugged. "Yeah. Let me just reset the machine for the next person first."

* * *

Saturday had been long, but Sunday was speeding by quickly. Lauren had slept in; she was drained from her hours of practice the day before and mentally preparing herself for the hellhole she called Mystic Falls High. After breakfast, Lauren and Jeremy had decided to watch a movie together to relax before the weekend was over. They tried to invite Elena, but she had holed up in her room for most of the morning after breakfast. There was no doubt in Lauren's mind that Stefan had probably snuck in the back door while she wasn't paying attention. She didn't mind all that much; after lunch with Stefan the other day, she actually was starting to like him. He was a little tightly wound, but he was nice. And he put a smile on Elena's face.

"Right here," Lauren said, pointing to the television just as Rachael Leigh Cook confronted Freddie Prinze Jr. about her being a bet Freddie's character made with his friend. They were watching _She's All That _for about the hundredth time. Jeremy turned to her and watched as Lauren's face grew red with anger. "Right here! All he has to do is tell her that he actually likes her! But no! He just _stands _there like a brain-dead moron!" The overly frustrated teenager let out a groan and turned to her brother with an accusing finger. "Jeremy Gilbert, don't you _ever _be a chicken with a girl. You hear me?"

Jeremy held up his hands in defense. "Hey, I thought you were yelling at Freddie Prinze, not me."

Lauren sighed and waved her hand. "Oh, what am I worried about? You're not gonna get a girlfriend any time soon," she muttered to herself, leaning forward to grab her Coca-Cola that was sitting on the coffee table. Jeremy scoffed.

"For your information, I actually did have a girlfriend."

Lauren practically spit out her Coke when she turned to him. "What? Who?"

Jeremy was silent for the longest time, as if debating on if he actually wanted to tell her. "Vicki Donovan," he said eventually, his voice soft. Lauren gasped.

"Matt's _sister_? What? When? How?" she bombarded Jeremy with questions. The kid Gilbert just sighed.

"It doesn't matter. She's gone. She ran away a couple weeks ago." Jeremy turned back to the movie, indicating that he was done with the subject. His sister's smile dwindled, and there was a twinge of sadness as she reached out and put a hand on Jeremy's shoulder comfortingly. She knew Vicki had run away, of course, but learning that it affected Jeremy was new.

"I'm sorry, Jer," Lauren apologized. Jeremy shrugged lightly.

"It's okay, I guess. It's for the best." Lauren's eyebrows knotted, and as she was about to ask why he would say that, there was a loud bouncing down the stairs. Jeremy and Lauren turned their heads to see Elena and Stefan both coming down the stairs hurriedly as if there was some kind of emergency.

"Whoa!" Lauren stood up from the couch, watching Elena take her car keys and grab her jacket while Stefan opened the door for her. "What's going on?"

Elena gave Lauren a smile, trying to forge it. Lauren knew better. "Nothing. Stefan and I are just going out."

"You looked like someone just died," Lauren noted, but Elena shrugged.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Look, I'll be back soon."

"Elena—" But Elena didn't wait for her. She and Stefan rushed out of the house, the door closing softly. Lauren was deeply and utterly confused, thinking over Elena's face in her mind. Her sister's actions were so suspicious…what could she possibly be doing?

Jeremy mumbled from the couch, "Yeah. She does that a lot."

Lauren looked down at him. "Really?" He nodded. "Do you know why?" Jeremy just shrugged, and Lauren sat back down on the couch, finding it completely and utterly strange.

But, nevertheless, she kicked her feet up on the coffee table and returned to her normal, relaxing day with her brother.

* * *

**Thanks for reading the chapter! Review if you can. As for this next thing, it's a response to a review last chapter. If it doesn't concern you, well...no need to worry about it. I'll update as soon as I can. **

_**Love, **_

_**BellaSalvatore1918**_

_**X**_

Guest**: Let me start off by saying I know exactly where your frustration comes from and I apologize, but let me clarify for you. The poll has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not I update or delete my stories. I use that poll to gage which stories are most popular so I can plan to update them quicker than the other ones, but it's never been the reason for me deleting a story. I remember the story you are referring to, it was called "With Good Intentions". However, it wasn't because of the poll or because of the lack of reviews, which I don't even think was the case because I think it was actually doing well. The reason I removed it was because I published that story without creating the proper plans, and this is something I am making sure will never happen again. I now take time to plan out every single detail of my stories so that they don't go under, but this doesn't mean that every story is fail-proof. For example, with "All the Same to Me", I deleted that story because I was having trouble with how I wanted my main character to deal with things and I grew to dislike her character development, which brought me to being unhappy with the story, itself. It is ****_never, _****ever about the reviews for me. I read every single one of the reviews that come through on my stories, I promise. And I normally feel so terrible about deleting a story, but if I'm never going to update it, what's the point of keeping it around? So that you all can sit and wait for three years until I get a spark of motivation, if I ever get any? That seems unfair to you _and _me. I would rather take it down and publish something else that I enjoy as much as you do. Again, I'm sorry for deleting that story, but please keep in mind that it never has anything to do with you all or that poll on my profile.**


	3. Warning Signs

**Hey everyone. This isn't a long chapter (or particularly interesting chapter, for that matter) but it's something. Sorry it took me a while to get this up. I've been working on the plans for a new story I hope to get out by the end of next week. But I managed to get some time to finish this and upload it, so here it is! I hope you all enjoy. Things are picking up next chapter, I swear by it. **

**Review at the end if you can please! Just a note, in my mind, this takes place after an alternate version of 1x10 where Elena forgives Stefan but doesn't get into a car crash and goes at that road trip with Damon. She and Stefan are still skeptical of Damon and Logan Fell is still alive, as you will see in the next chapter. Tomb vampires are x'd from this story so that's not a potential villain. We'll start getting to what this story is really about around the 11th chapter or so. **

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Warning Signs**

_After fluttering for a moment or two, Lauren's brown eyes finally emerged behind her eyelids, her pupils dilating to get rid of the blurry filter on them. She forced herself up from a lying position and looked around, finding no familiarity in where she was. All she could make out were generic things—trees, grass, the moon that hung low in the sky. When she finally reached a sitting position, Lauren looked down to find that she was lying in the grass, a white dress covering her entire body to her ankles. Lauren gripped the grass that was in her fingertips and pulled herself up from the ground, stumbling while she did so. _

_Once in an upright position, Lauren looked down at herself. It wasn't just a white dress she was in, it looked like something ancient. Only one shoulder held the dress up, and it was lined with gold stitching. She looked like she just stepped out of a Party City costume catalog. Her head snapped up and she took turns looking from one side to the other. _

"_Hello?" she called out and used her feet to step, one at a time. No one answered her. "Hello? Is anyone there?" _

_Only a second passed before the ground beneath her crumbled, and she fell._

* * *

When Lauren jolted awake from her sleep, her body didn't waste any time trying to kick her out of her bed. She came to find herself in a vertical position in her place of rest, the sheets all tangled between her legs and the sound of an ugly beeping beside her. Lauren turned her head, her breath heavy from the feeling of being dropped from so high up in the air still coursing through her. The clock on the nightstand read the dreaded time: early Monday morning an hour before school started.

_Great. _Lauren pulled back her covers with a groan and got out of bed without so much as a choice. After she showered and changed and all of the stuff people normally did when returning back to school after a long weekend, Lauren went downstairs to find only her Aunt Jenna in the kitchen, getting ready for school, herself.

"Hey," Jenna greeted her as Lauren came down. "There's some cereal in the pantry."

"Thanks," Lauren said, going to the pantry just as Jenna had informed her of the food. "Did Jeremy and Elena already head out for school?"

Jenna nodded. "Yeah." This was a surprise to Lauren, but she didn't say anything about it while she poured herself a bowl of cereal. "Jeremy got a ride from one of his friends and Elena went with Bonnie. Is Caroline coming to pick you up?"

As Lauren poured milk into her cereal bowl, she shook her head at Jenna. "Actually, I'm going to go pick her up. She likes my car better." Jenna rushed around the kitchen, trying to get all of her shit together so she could get out the door as fast as possible. "Are you late or something?"

"Yeah, actually. I am." Lauren shoveled a spoonful of cereal in her mouth watching as Jenna freaked out. "Keys…keys…where are my _keys_?"

Lauren jerked her head to Jenna. "They're right there," she said, pointing to the center island that she was just behind. Jenna's eyes cut to where Lauren was pointing and she let out a relieved sigh.

"Oh. Thanks, Lauren." The Gilbert twin nodded. "I'll see you later. Drive safe."

"Bye," Lauren said to her aunt as Jenna quickly grabbed her things and headed out of the house. It left Lauren alone to collect her thoughts and to prepare herself for a day of being bombarded with questions by teachers and nosy little freshman begging for any type of gossip they could possibly get.

After picking up Caroline at the Forbes household, the two friends were forced to part ways. While Caroline went to class, Lauren had to go to the front office to get her schedule and fill out whatever necessary paperwork was left from her transfer. She had been kicking herself for not just transferring before the semester started, but there was nothing she could do about it.

"Lauren Gilbert?" her name was called, earning Lauren to stand up from the waiting area in the front office. She walked forward to the threshold of the principal's office when she ran smack into someone else, bumping herself back.

"Oh! Wow, sorry," a boy said to her, gripping her shoulders to prevent Lauren from falling. "Are you okay? That was my fault."

"I'm good. I'm good. Thanks," Lauren said, and the boy dropped his hands from her shoulders. For some reason, a cold shiver ran down her spine as she stared into the boy's chilling brown eyes. "Are you okay?"

The boy nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine."

"Lauren Gilbert?" the principal repeated. Lauren and the boy moved around each other with nothing else to be said, and while he left, Lauren went into the office to meet with her formal principal. Mr. Webber. "Ah. There you are."

"Sorry, Mr. Webber," Lauren apologized, sitting down in front of Principal Webber's desk. "I just ran into someone, that's all."

Principal Webber shrugged. "Well, Miss Gilbert. I do have to say that I am pleased to have you back. Our tennis team was failing _miserably _without you. Don't…tell anyone I said that." Lauren and Mr. Webber shared a small, understanding smile. "I assume you'll be trying out for the team this year as well?"

Lauren nodded. "I've already started practicing," she assured him.

Principal Webber grinned. "Excellent. From your record at Newman, I can see this will be a great season." Did it bother Lauren that Principal Webber didn't even talk about her outstanding grades as well as her athletic talent? Definitely. She hated when people only saw her for the record-holding tennis star in Mystic Falls. It made her feel like she was nothing but a sports machine. She _did _have intellect, too. It seemed unfair that she was judged solely on her athletic talent. "Well, anyways, here's your schedule. I'll need you to have each of your teachers sign these slips and you'll have to return it at the end of the day to my secretary."

Principal Webber gave Lauren the two pieces of paper—her schedule and the slip of paper with enough spaces on it for her teachers to sign. Lauren nodded to him.

"Yeah. No problem, Mr. Webber."

"Wonderful," Principal Webber chimed. "Now…first period has already started. You should be on your way."

"Right," Lauren agreed and gave the principal a smile before heading out to first period.

Mystic Falls High was the same as she'd left it—dull, boring, and uninteresting. The only difference was that they didn't have mean old Mr. Tanner running up and down the halls trying to bully kids into respecting him. The Newman Academy was strict, yes, but it was different. First off, the tennis team was ten times better than the one in Mystic Falls. In Mystic Falls, Lauren was by far the best tennis player out of the entire team. At Newman, she was _one _of the best. And that was surprising, seeing as most of the rich students at Newman had gone to tennis camps where Roger Federer was coaching the games. For her, it was nothing but a spring camp with Caroline two towns over in Charlottesville where the trainers had put in no effort at all.

Unlike Lauren, Caroline was a cheerleader by nature. But this athletic ability on Caroline's part made it easier to play tennis with her friend. So every now and then, Lauren and Caroline would get together on the courts and play a couple rounds. Since Caroline wasn't the tennis star Lauren was, it was easy for the Gilbert to win. She wasn't a sore loser, though, so sometimes she even let Caroline win. As the two grew older, Caroline started picking up on her tells so that, when the blonde won at the end of the game, she could accuse Lauren of letting her win yet again. Lauren never gave into Caroline's accusations, but they were the truth, and they both knew it.

When Lauren entered her first class of the day, she found herself relieved to see Bonnie, Elena, Matt, and even Stefan in the same classroom. First period was History for her and, as it seemed, almost everyone else.

The new teacher stopped at the front of his classroom upon the intrusion. He was tall with sandy-colored hair and a lean frame. "Can I help you?"

Lauren nodded and walked to the front of the room without faltering. She met the new teacher at the front of the classroom and gave him the slip that Principal Webber needed her teachers to sign. "Sorry I'm late, I was just getting my schedule. Principal Webber needs you to sign that," she told the teacher.

"Oh." The teacher shrugged and grabbed a pen on the desk beside him. While he signed the slip of paper, the rest of the class chatted amongst themselves behind Lauren. The new teacher straightened and gave the slip of paper back to Lauren. "Well, I'm Alaric Saltzman. You can call me Ric. You are?"

"Lauren," the teenager said immediately. "Lauren Gilbert."

"Gilbert?" Alaric repeated and looked behind Lauren's shoulder to the other Gilbert in the room talking to her boyfriend. "Two Gilberts in the same class. Now that's got to be a record." Alaric gave her a kind smile and gestured towards the seats. "Well, take a seat, Lauren."

Lauren gave him a smile back and walked towards the rest of the students and sat down near Bonnie, who had a free seat next to her. Alaric Saltzman was nothing like William Tanner.

And thank God for that.

* * *

"So Duke's throwing another party?" Lauren asked Caroline outside in the courtyard. Beside them, Tyler and Matt were throwing a football to each other and Bonnie was talking with them. It was the end of the day, finally, but it was still only Monday. Four more days to go.

Caroline nodded, ecstatic. "Uh huh. I always thought he was a total ass, but whatever. You know he throws the best parties."

Lauren laughed and dipped a French fry in ketchup. "Of course he does. It's Duke from Duke. How much better can it get?" A facetious smile crossed her lips, and Caroline rolled her eyes. "So when is it?"

"This weekend," Caroline told her immediately. "At the graveyard."

Lauren raised an eyebrow. "The graveyard? What a weird place to have a party."

The blonde shrugged. "Open space. Plenty of privacy. Away from adults. It makes sense." Her eyes flickered up to see Stefan and Elena approaching them. Elena smiled at Caroline and the blonde smiled back. "Hey, Elena. I was just telling Lauren about the Duke party this weekend."

Lauren looked up at her sister. "What do you say, sis? I think it'll be fun."

Elena shrugged. "I don't see why not. Hey, Lauren, do you mind picking me up from the Salvatore house around five? I don't really want to have Bonnie have to chauffeur me all day."

"The Salvatore house?" Lauren repeated, confused. Stefan quickly told her where is was, and the twin Gilbert shrugged. "Sure. I don't see why not. You said five?"

Elena nodded. "Thanks, Lauren." She said before splitting off with her boyfriend after grabbing Bonnie from Matt and Tyler. Caroline looked after them, and Lauren caught onto Caroline's jealous look.

"Did you try for Stefan, Caroline?" Lauren asked. A smile twitched at her lips. She knew Caroline all too well—the teenage blonde was so jealous of Elena that it was blatantly obvious. It should've offended Lauren, but she knew better than to get upset over Caroline's jealously.

Caroline looked back at Lauren and sighed in defeat. "I did. Yeah. But I'm totally over it." Lauren looked at Caroline pointedly, and Caroline held her hands up. "Really! I am. I even dated his brother for a while. God, what a mistake that was."

"His brother?" Lauren asked, intrigued. "You dated him?"

"Yeah." Caroline's eyes dropped. "You know, can we just drop it? I don't really like to talk about it all that much."

The brunette stared for a moment, but then nodded. "Yeah. Sure."

When Lauren returned home, she still had about an hour before she had to pick Elena up from Stefan's house. Jeremy was upstairs blasting his music and Jenna was still at her classes, leaving Lauren to sit and think to herself. But she hated being bored, and since she couldn't go to the tennis courts because she had a time frame, she just turned on the television and started making herself a sandwich. _Titanic _came onto the television, and while Lauren could appreciate the romantic drama, she found herself screaming at the television.

"Move to your goddamn left, Rose!" Lauren snapped at the television, pointing her jelly-covered knife at the TV in the living room. "If you just scoot over, he can get on the freaking raft."

Of course, that's not how it happened. Rose DeWitt Bukater could not move, and Jack Dawson died of hypothermia. A frustrated, yet careless, Lauren just went back to making her sandwich, but realized that through all the hype, she accidentally spritzed her shirt with jelly.

"Damn it," the Gilbert cursed and sighed. She left her sandwich on the kitchen table and went upstairs to get another shirt. But instead of going to her room, she stopped at the threshold and looked over at Elena's room. A mischievous grin came across her features and Lauren walked over into her twin's corner bedroom to get a shirt. Elena always had better clothes than she did. Lauren rifled through Elena's dresser, trying to find a shirt to change into, and when she finally found a nice red one, she also found something strange.

Lauren pulled out the silk shirt and set it on the floor beside her for later, but her attention wasn't focused on it. Instead, she focused on the nice, sharp, pointy stake lying on top of the rest of Elena's shirts.

"What the hell…" the twin whispered, pulling out the wooden stake from inside Elena's dresser. What the hell did Elena need a wooden stake for? Did she plan on going around killing vampires? If Lauren wasn't mistaking, vampires weren't real. Eventually, Lauren realized that it was strange and, quite frankly, none of her business. She just widened her eyes and closed the drawers. "Okay then."

After swapping shirts and throwing her jelly-spotted one in the wash, Lauren went back to the kitchen to finish her sandwich. Instead, she found Jeremy and a halfway-devoured sandwich in his hands.

"Hey, Lauren. Thanks for the sandwich."

Lauren frowned. "It wasn't yours!" The younger Gilbert just smiled and scoffed the jelly sandwich down whole, causing Lauren to roll her eyes and turn to walk out of the kitchen.

* * *

Instead of being one of _those _sisters who just beeped the horn, Lauren decided to go up to the boarding house and get Elena. To be fair, it was to satisfy her own curiosity. The Salvatore house wasn't just a _house, _it was a _mansion. _It was hard to believe that she'd never heard of the property before. But it was an antiquated house without even so much as a doorbell. Instead, there was just a long rope that was attached to a bell. Intrigued, Lauren reached forward to pull the rope, but the door swung open before she could.

She expected Elena. Possibly even Stefan. What she didn't expect was Stefan's brother.

"Elena's twin," the older Salvatore sung with a smirk on his face. "What a lovely surprise."

"It's Lauren, actually," the brunette told the Salvatore, eyeing him carefully. Damon smiled and nodded.

"Lauren." Things went silent for a moment before he stepped inside. "Come on in. Elena's just getting her things together."

"Okay…Stefan's brother," Lauren mumbled, having no other name to call him by. She stepped into the foyer and looked all around the house, finding herself enchanted by its beauty and detail.

"It's Damon," the dark-haired vampire told the human girl in his foyer with a low tone. He walked around her so that he was standing in front of her, and his eyes surveyed her weary face.

"Damon. Okay then." She gave him a tight smile, and Damon just gestured to her cheek where there was light purple bruising.

"That doesn't look too good."

Lauren moved her own hand up to her cheek and her fingertips drifted across the fading bruises. She inhaled sharply. "Yeah. It's…not too comfortable, but I'll live. Those damn pitching machines."

Damon smiled. "You deal with them a lot?"

Lauren shrugged. "Tennis player's best friend when they don't have someone to play a game with. Practice makes perfect."

"Yes. It does," Damon agreed. "Although I'd try not to practice too much on your face. Can't be good for it."

"I'm just lucky it didn't hit me harder somewhere else." Behind Damon, Elena emerged from the staircase with Stefan on her heels. Damon turned so that he was beside Lauren instead of in front of her, and Lauren smiled. "You ready to go, Elena?"

Elena buttoned her blazer and nodded. "Yeah, I'm…" When she looked up and caught sight of Damon beside her sister, Elena tensed and froze. Stefan did the same, eyeing Damon's presence. Lauren was confused, but Elena coughed. "I'm good. We should go."

Damon hummed under his breath and turned to the other twin. "Well, it was lovely to meet you, Lauren. I hope it's not the last time."

Lauren pursed her lips. "Yeah. Um…you too." Elena walked forward and grabbed Lauren's arm, pulling her out of the house. "Elena, what the…? Ow. That kind of hurts, you know."

"Damon Salvatore is _no _good. You need to stay away from him," Elena barked angrily once they were outside. Lauren just jerked her arm back to herself as Elena moved towards the car. Lauren tried desperately to keep up with her pace.

"Hey, you're the one dating his brother! I just talked to the guy. What is your _problem_?"

"He's just bad, Lauren. That's all. Promise me you'll stay away from him?" Elena asked, sharply turning around on her heel in front of Lauren's car. Lauren stopped just shy of running Elena over with her steps. Before Lauren had the chance to answer, Elena looked down at her twin's shirt. "Hey, is that my shirt?"

Lauren crossed her arms over her chest. Well, if it was Elena's business to tell her who she can and can't see, then it was her business what a pointy stake was doing hiding in her dresser. "Yeah. It is. Twin privilege. I wanted a shirt. But you know what else I found? Mr. Pointy hiding in a bed of silk. What the hell are you doing with a wooden stake, Elena?"

Elena shrugged. "Nothing. I just keep it for protection."

Lauren frowned. "A knife is used by normal people for protection. A wooden _stake _is used by freak shows."

Elena scrambled to come up with a lie, eventually just groaning. "Whatever, Lauren. I just got it at some store Bonnie took me to and I kept it, okay? Can we go home now? Please?"

The two twins stared each other down, but it didn't matter. Eventually, Elena just walked around the car and did what she wanted to, anyway, climbing in the passenger seat to wait for Lauren to take her home. Feeling like every teenager did on a late Monday evening, Lauren just wanted to do the same thing—go home. So she hopped in the passenger seat and both Elena and Lauren dropped their conversations and requests in exchange for solitude.


	4. Bump in the Night

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Bump in the Night**

Parties used to be her scene. As one of the best tennis players in a 50-mile radius, everyone was infatuated with the skills of Lauren Gilbert. So, naturally, popular kids wanted the soon-to-be tennis star at their parties so they would have something to brag about. Lauren never classified herself as "popular", the popularity complex was more Elena's scene since the teenager didn't play a sport and was just naturally liked. Lauren, if anything, was one of the jocks in her class, but she hardly acted like it. Sure, there were days when dressing down casually was her style, but most days, she conformed to society and actually _attempted _at wearing the hottest, latest trends.

However, the parties at Newman were different. They had a different aura, and though the death of her parents had been taxing, the one thing that Lauren hated to do was sit to herself and wallow. Elena happened to be the opposite way—she had done exactly what Lauren _didn't _want to do: Elena changed her entire life. She broke up with Matt, she stopped hanging out with Caroline and Bonnie, and she holed herself up in her room and spent her days with her journal. In Lauren's opinion, it was depressing, but she had no right to judge on how others coped.

But this party—the Duke party—was a little out of her comfort zone, which made it ten times out of Elena's. In fact, Elena had already backed out of the party, saying she had something important to do with Stefan. So, already having the common foresight to see that Elena would back out of the social event, Lauren had planned to go with Caroline and Bonnie.

Like she'd mentioned before, the graveyard was an odd place to host a party, but it was also a smart place. No adults were around to monitor for alcohol, not that they would've cared, anyway. There was always that kid with the flask at one of the Decade Dances that all the other kids went to for their supply.

"Look, there's the football team," Caroline whispered huskily as they walked further into the graveyard where the party was really taking place. The music was coming from a stereo on the ground protected by a shield of plastic red cups to warn people where their source of background noise was coming from. An iPhone was hooked up to it that played music into the speakers.

Bonnie groaned appreciatively. "Why are they so beautiful?"

Lauren scoffed. "They're high school teenage boys. They're not beautiful, they're crude."

"Not all of them!" Caroline protested. Lauren looked over at Caroline and arched an eyebrow.

"When did you become a football groupie?" the Gilbert asked, earning a shrug from her blonde friend. This only made Lauren more curious, but Caroline moved on before Lauren could push further.

"Whatever. You haven't even met all of them, come on." Caroline pulled Lauren over to the group of high school boys, and Lauren complied without much of a fight. Bonnie followed them, and when Matt spotted the trio, he smiled at them.

"Hey! You guys made it!" Matt exclaimed happily. Caroline nodded and gave somewhat of a girlish smile at him.

"Yeah, we did. I was just gonna introduce Lauren to the rest of the team." Caroline looked behind Matt, causing him to turn and survey his peers. He nodded as he turned back to them.

"Oh. Yeah, sure." He moved back with them and brought the three ladies into the group of boys, instantly causing a cease in conversation. "Hey, guys, look who showed up."

As Caroline and Bonnie integrated into the circle of perverted teenage boys, Lauren looked around the circle and found that she knew most of the team already. The only ones she didn't know were freshman, but she'd seen them floating around from time to time in the hallway. One boy, however, intrigued her.

"Hey! It's you…the one who totally trampled over me in the office," Lauren blurted out, pointing at the kid with brown, spiky hair drinking out of a red plastic cup looking at her. He almost choked on his drink, but ended up swallowing all of it.

"Uh…yeah. Yeah, but Isaac would work, too," the football player laughed. Lauren smiled at him politely.

"Well, I'm Lauren. Are you…new or something?" She didn't remember seeing him before she left for boarding school, and since it was such a small school, she should've. "Wait, was that why you were in the office?"

"Guilty," Isaac agreed, shrugging his shoulders. "What were you in for?"

"…Almost the same thing. I'm not _new, _but I transferred back from boarding school."

"Oh." Isaac pointed at her as if remembering who she was. "Wait a second…you're Elena Gilbert's twin sister, right? The one who came from that fancy academy over in Emporia?"

Lauren frowned. "I see I've become _that _person, haven't I?"

All of a sudden, Lauren felt an arm swing around her shoulder, and she looked to the side to see Tyler with his arm wrapped around her and a beer in his hand. He smiled at her drunkenly. "Sorry. I guess that might be my fault a little."

"And why's that?"

"Because I told him you were Elena's twin sister who came from that fancy academy over in Emporia," Tyler shrugged carelessly before swallowing down a gulp from his beer. Lauren scoffed.

"There's more to me than just Elena's twin, you know."

Tyler rolled his eyes. "I know, I know. The next Serena Williams and all that. Everyone's only been saying that since the third grade, you know."

Lauren took offense to his words and looked between the awkwardly idle Isaac and the drunken Tyler on her shoulders. "You know, for once, can I just be classified as…I don't know, a hot, smart junior who…has nice hair or something? Is that too much to ask?"

Tyler's lips turned up into a smirk. "Okay…fine. You're a hot, smart junior who has nice hair." He leaned forward and kissed her cheek in a friendly manner. Lauren wrinkled her nose, but found herself laughing. "Better?"

"Much. But you smell like beer." She elbowed him in the ribs and Tyler dropped his arm from his shoulders with a dramatic overplay. In front of her, Isaac laughed, and Lauren smiled at him. "Sorry, I didn't mean to come off rude or anything…"

"No, no. I totally get it." Isaac shook his head in agreement. He gave her an empathetic look. "If I had a twin brother, I would hate to be classified as just that. It was my fault."

Lauren waved her hand. "Don't worry about it."

But all conversation stopped when she saw Elena and Stefan out of the corner of her eye, causing her to become entirely suspicious. _They said they weren't going to be here, _thought Lauren skeptically. Deciding to pursue the strange situation, Lauren looked at Isaac apologetically.

"Excuse me," she told him before taking off in the other direction without waiting for his response. She jogged over to Stefan and Elena, who were frightfully looking back and forth and both had serious expressions on their faces. Lauren finally caught Elena by her elbow, causing her sister to jolt. "Whoa! Elena, it's just me."

"Sorry," Elena said unapologetically. "Hey."

"Hey…?" Lauren said the greeting more like a question. She scoffed. "What are you doing here, Elena? I thought you said you weren't going to come?"

Elena fumbled for words, finding it very hard to lie to her own twin. Stefan eventually stepped in for her, saving her from the embarrassment from having to come up with a lie. "We…uh, we decided to stop by for a while. But it's a little crowded, so we figured we'd take a little walk."

Lauren cocked an eyebrow. "In a cemetery?" She looked over at Elena, who nodded without saying words. The other Gilbert twin just sighed. "I mean…sure. Whatever floats your boat. But you should've told me you wanted to come, we could've driven together."

"It was…really last minute," Elena admitted, shrugging. "But we can give you a ride back if you'd like."

"It's…fine. Caroline already said she'd take me home," Lauren rejected politely. But she was still curious, finding Stefan and Elena to be a little too jumpy for her taste. "Are you sure you two are okay?"

"Yeah." Elena nodded. "We're fine, Lauren. Go. Enjoy the party. We'll catch up to you later."

Without waiting for a response from her sister, Elena took Stefan with her and they walked off deeper into the woods for their solitary walk. Lauren stared after them with a puzzled look, and she was far from someone who would just drop things when they started getting too complicated for her mind. First, the wooden stake in Elena's bedroom, then her ominous warning about Stefan's brother, and now this? Not to mention all those times Elena had rushed out of the house with the excuse that she was going to see Stefan. It was starting to intrigue Lauren—to worry her. Deep down, there was a twin sense that she felt her sister wasn't being 100% honest with her.

So, she decided to go to someone who knew everything about Elena's life from firsthand information—Bonnie. Bonnie had been Elena's best friend since as long as they could all remember, and though technically, they were a group of friends, there was always that divide. Bonnie and Elena were closer and Caroline and Lauren were closer, that's just the way it went. Now, that didn't mean that they didn't all hang out together or consider themselves friends, but that's the way it normally went. They split into pairs.

"Hey, Bonnie?" Lauren interrupted her friend talking to a fellow football player, laughing and trying to act girlish like Caroline. Bonnie looked up at her with confused, yet irritated, eyes. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

Bonnie's eyes cut sharply to the football player before her and then went back to Lauren. "_Right _now?"

"Please," Lauren added, trying to be nice about it. Bonnie let out a frustrated sigh and gave an apologetic smile to the football player before residing to a desolate spot with Lauren. Bonnie crossed her arms.

"This better be good."

"What's going on with Elena?" Lauren blurted out, causing Bonnie to stiffen. "I mean…there's been something _off _about her ever since I came back. Whenever she's around Stefan…when _I _talk to Damon. There's something _weird _going on and I want to know what it is."

Bonnie shook her head after a while of silence. "Don't worry about it, Lauren. It's nothing. Elena's fine."

Lauren scowled. "Did you know she keeps a wooden stake in one of her drawers?" Bonnie fell silent. "That's not _normal, _Bonnie. And I have this…_bad _feeling like there's something going on that I don't know about. It's some sort of…I don't know, twin sense or something. You know I can sense when she's lying."

"She's not lying," Bonnie tried, shaking her head. "Just…drop it, okay? It's nothing."

"But that's my point…" Lauren trailed off, looking at Bonnie with confused eyes. What was Bonnie trying to tell her? "It's _obviously _something." They both were silent. "Bonnie, if you know something, I need you to tell me."

"I don't know anything."

"Then…why don't I believe you?"

"Trust me!" Bonnie tried laughing it off to seem less nervous. It backfired and only caused the Gilbert twin to cock her hip out and look at Bonnie with incredulous eyes. "It's nothing to worry about. I'm sure it's just…her relationship with Stefan or something. They're attached at the hip. You'll get used to it." Lauren said nothing, and trying to find an excuse to get out of the conversation, Bonnie looked elsewhere and caught sight of the keg. "Um…I'm gonna go get a drink, okay?"

Bonnie didn't even wait for a response; she just took off, leaving Lauren alone and quite peeved. There was something that Bonnie was hiding or covering up for Elena, she just knew it. As Lauren turned and kept a suspicious eye on Bonnie, she felt Caroline's presence beside her. Caroline was the first to say something.

"Um…Lauren? Why are you giving Bonnie the stink eye?"

"Because she's hiding something from me," Lauren deemed. "Just like Elena. There's something going on, Care. I can feel it."

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Bonnie's a witch."

Lauren scoffed. "Well, that's not a very nice thing to say, Caroline. She's still our _friend_."

"No!" Caroline exclaimed, slapping Lauren's arm. "No! I didn't mean it like that. She's _really _a witch. Showed me and Elena this pillow trick and everything. There were feathers all over the place. It was _creepy_. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it for myself."

The Gilbert twin turned to Caroline and frowned. "A witch?" she asked, causing the blonde to nod. "What, like she flies around on a broomstick or something?"

Caroline grimaced. "Of course not. Just ask her about it when you get a chance, I'm sure she'll show you or something. But that's probably why she's acting strange."

Lauren pursed her lips, trying to think. "But that wouldn't explain everything. Elena's behavior is strange, too. She's going out all the time to meet up with Stefan, even at late hours…she's lying to me…and let's not even _talk _about the wooden stake in her dresser."

Caroline laughed. "Elena has a wooden stake in her dresser? Why? Is she planning on fighting off…Count Dracula or something?"

The other teenager scoffed. "That'd be something, at least."

Lauren's brown eyes swept across the cemetery, observing the high school teenagers, but then she caught sight of someone that was _definitely _not a high school teenager. He was far too muscular, far too handsome, and far too mature to be considered a teenager. It was Damon, Stefan's brother. But, here was the question: what was Damon doing at a high school party?

"What?" Caroline asked, looking off in the direction that Lauren was looking. When she spotted Damon, herself, the blonde groaned. "Lauren! I _told _you not to get involved with him—"

Lauren shook her head at Caroline. "No, it's…it's not that." She looked up at her friend. "I'll be right back, okay?"

Caroline protested, but Lauren ignored her and took off in Damon's direction. Damon didn't even notice her; he looked like some sort of man on a mission. He wore the exact same expression as both Stefan and Elena, like there was something dire he had to attend to. This definitely struck her as odd, and she couldn't help all the curious bones in her body. She followed him, but found that he was too fast for her own good. The second he turned around a corner, he disappeared, and she desperately looked around for any sign of him. Regardless that she'd lost Damon, she walked forward more, farther into the woods, until she heard a band of voices coming from the other side of a long wall of shrubs.

"I _told _you what I want. Don't make me kill again. I'll kill _every _single one of those annoying little _twits _out there if I have to!" a cold voice snapped, and Lauren walked up to one of the shrubs that she felt was harboring the voice.

Crouching down, she made sure to be as quiet as she could possibly be, breathing through her nose as little as she could. Through a slit between the bushes, she could see parts of Damon, Stefan, Elena, and the news anchor, Logan Fell, who had recently been replaced. Leaves on the shrubs covered parts of those people she knew, but Lauren was careful to avoid touching the shrub so it didn't make a crunching sound. All she could do was move up and down to get a better sense of the picture.

It was when she moved down when she saw something frightening—something absolutely _terrifying. _Something that didn't make sense. A young, popular freshman who had been invited to the Duke party be courtesy was lying on the forest ground with her head to the side, her eyes full of emptiness, and blood staining the side of her neck. Lauren, in a desperate attempt to make sure she didn't scream, covered her mouth with her hand and bit down on her tongue.

Damon flashed forward, a sight that was barely visible to Lauren, but was a phenomenon. The strange Salvatore gripped Logan by his throat and squeezed hard, causing Logan to choke on his own breath. "Try threatening me again and I'll rip your _heart _out of your spleen so fast you won't even see it _coming_."

Damon dropped Logan and the newborn vampire stumbled back and gasped for air. Since Saint Stefan and Saint Elena had been insistent upon keeping Logan alive because he had taken a few humans and kept them for live food, Damon couldn't kill him. And the threat wasn't enough.

"I want that daylight ring," Logan spat, and Damon narrowed his eyes. "And I want it _tonight._"

Stefan stepped forward. "It's going to take _time—"_

"And you have until the end of the night! Did I not say that?" Logan growled. He eyed Elena behind the muscular vampire. "Unless…you _want _me to rip your twin's throat out, Elena. I bet her blood tastes _good_."

Lauren gulped thickly, finding some sickness rise in her throat. Her mind raced, her heart pounded, and she had no idea what was going on. Someone was threatening to _kill _her…by drinking her blood.

"My sister has nothing to do with this!" Elena cried out, shaking her head.

Logan looked at both Damon and Stefan. "Then I expect that daylight ring before the sun rises. Understood?"

No one said anything—Damon just stared, Stefan kept Elena behind his shoulder, and Elena stood with a worried expression. Logan backed up and, without another word, fled the scene so fast that Lauren felt her head spin again. Once Logan was gone, Damon growled.

"I _hate _that guy."

"Stefan," Elena panicked, turning to him. Stefan turned his own body to face Elena. "We have to do something. We have to ask Bonnie again or…or find another witch."

"We'll figure it out, Elena. I promise. Let's just get you home first." Stefan nodded to her. Elena scoffed.

"What? I can't go home! Not with all of this going on!"

Damon turned around sharply. "Honestly, Elena, you'll really just be in the way. Listen to your boyfriend, _go home_."

Stefan jerked his head back to the graveyard. "Come on. We'll go get your sister and make sure she gets home safe. Logan hasn't been invited in, so he can't do anything if she gets out."

Elena nodded meekly, and Stefan turned back to Damon to continue working out a plan with him. Lauren, however, had tuned them out at this point and rose from the balls of her feet. She let her dazed feet carry her back to civilization, but she found that her curiosity seemed to be her curse. All she could think about was that dead body…Logan's words…that strange…_cat-like _movement that Damon and Logan seemed to have…

There was no answer for it, though it was staring her right in the face. It seemed that Elena's very own Mr. Pointy had…well, a _point. _

"Where did you _go_?" someone whined, and Lauren looked to the side to see Caroline approaching her. Caroline stopped at the sight of Lauren's deathly pale face. "Whoa…Lauren, what happened?"

"I need you to take me home, Caroline." Lauren swallowed while Caroline arched an eyebrow. "Please."

* * *

Once home, Lauren found herself relieved to find that Elena had not yet reached their residence. She needed a moment—a silent moment—and she could only thank her lucky stars that Aunt Jenna was grabbing a dinner and a drink at the Grill. Her head was pounding more than it ever had, and being an athlete, she unsurprisingly had encountered many migraines before. But no migraine was as worse as _this. _This was not just _any _migraine, it was a migraine that would not be healed by aspirin, but instead would be cured by _answers._

She somehow found herself opening the door of Elena's room, her mind carrying her where answers could be. For a brief moment, the thought of Elena's diary crossed her mind. All of her answers would be in there; everything Elena was thinking, feeling, or had seen was in that journal. But, no—that would be an invasion of privacy. That was _not _a twin privilege.

So, instead, Lauren spotted the third drawer from the bottom of Elena's dresser. Wasting no time, she rushed forward and pulled it open to find the wooden stake that Elena kept in between her silk shirts. Instead, Lauren came up empty, leaving her with only one thought: Elena had moved it. Shuffling through more of Elena's drawers, Lauren finally found it nestled underneath Elena's assorted array of bras. The wood slipped into her grasp and Lauren shut the dresser tight and looked up at the mirror. There she was—just a few features away from being the spitting image of Elena—holding a wooden stake so hard that it was sure to give her splinters.

The next sound she heard was by her own accord—she was rushing down the stairs, ready to drive to the boarding house and demand answers. Her heart was pounding so hard that she couldn't hear the sound of the key jiggle on the front doorstep, and Lauren just pulled the door open and started to move out. However, she was stopped when she found just the two people she wanted to see standing right in front of her with concerned expressions. They hadn't spotted the wooden stake, yet, since it was by Lauren's side.

"Lauren!" Elena exclaimed, relieved. "Oh, my God! I was looking for you _everywhere! _Why'd you leave the party early?"

Lauren said nothing; she just looked back and forth between Stefan and Elena. Stefan eyed her, confused, and Elena did the same. After enough time passed, Lauren's sweaty palm tightened around the stake and she pulled it up to eye level, immediately causing Stefan and Elena to shift their focus.

"Lauren…" Stefan trailed off, widening his eyes.

Lauren took out a shaking breath and she just growled, "What _are _you?"


	5. High Stakes

**Sorry it took so long for this chapter to get out. Thanks for being so patient with me! Going to watch TVD now :)**

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Chapter 5: High Stakes**

Sweat poured from her skin as Lauren violently hit every single tennis ball that came at her at a rigorous pace. She dominated the court; she never missed a single beat or step when it came to hitting the balls across the court. Though her pace was intense, this was what she called relaxing. The concentration of her attention on the pitching machine was what kept her from going insane after what she'd learned about the life of her dear old fraternal twin.

Damon and Stefan Salvatore were vampires. Vampires were in Mystic Falls. Vampires were _real_.

With a frustrated grunt, Lauren hit the fast-thrown tennis ball with so much intensity that she was sure the seams split open and the globular ball became somewhat of a pancake.

* * *

**12 Hours Earlier**

* * *

"No." Lauren shook her head and paced back and forth in the kitchen at an unsafe pace. "No. No, that's impossible. Vampires can't be _real_."

"They are, Lauren," Elena assured her from her position sitting down at the table. Stefan stood beside her, one hand on her shoulder for encouragement. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have confronted us. You know they're real."

"This is ridiculous!" Lauren shouted. She spun around on her heel and waved the wooden stake up in the air. "_This _thing is a prop, Elena! You," she pointed at Stefan, "can_not _be a vampire. It's not possible."

"Lauren," Stefan started slowly, taking his hand off of Elena's shoulder and stepping around the table to meet his girlfriend's sister face-to-face. "I knowhow hard this is to process. Elena took a while, too, but—"

"Don't," Lauren warned, gripping the stake in her hand tightly. She pointed it at him and Stefan looked down at the stake with caution. "I'll use it, I swear."

"Lauren, stopthis!" Elena rose from her position at the dining table and stormed over to her sister, where she grabbed the stake from Lauren's hand and looked at her with distaste. "He won't hurt you. Do you think I would ever put myself in danger like that?"

"Elena, you're dating a vampire! _I'm _putting myself in danger by being three feet away from him!"

"Stefan won't hurt either of us," the teenager assured, stepping forward to her sister to try and soothe her. Elena could see it clearly—her sister was just scared, not homicidal. "You have to trust me on this, okay?"

After thinking it over for a moment, Lauren finally calmed down and sighed. She backed up to sit down on the bar stool by the center island, and Elena and Stefan stood in front of her and waited for the questions that came after they had told her the basic things about vampires.

"So, what's this whole thing with the news guy?" Lauren asked slowly, remembering the reason she came to the conclusion in the first place. Elena and Stefan raised their eyebrows. "I saw you both in the woods behind the graveyard. Logan Fell was threatening to kill everyone. For…a _daylight _ring?"

She said the words with confusion, not sure what she was talking about. Elena nodded and took in a deep breath to begin to explain.

"If vampires go out in the sun, they'll burn." Lauren opened her mouth to protest, but Elena answered her question before it was asked. "Stefan has a daylight ring, something that allows him to walk in the sun."

"That's what Logan wants and he won't stop at anything to get it," Stefan added and looked at Elena. "Elena and I tried to get Bonnie to make a daylight ring so we could put an end to this, but she won't do it for us. Besides, it's too risky. He could hurt a lot of people if he were able to walk in the sun."

"So do you guys have a plan?" asked Lauren. The question earned no response and a scoff from the Gilbert teenager. "Come on! The guy said he'd come after _me _next! I'm a sitting duck in here!"

"No," Stefan corrected immediately. "Actually, you're the safest in here. Vampires need to be invited inside and Logan hasn't been invited."

"So don't invite _anyone _into the house," Elena taught quickly, pointing at her sister. "Anyone—the mail guy, the pizza guy…just don't tell them to come in. Step aside and wait for them to step through themselves."

Lauren was quiet. The way her sister said these things…it sounded like she'd had issues with it before. She frowned. "How many vampires are in Mystic Falls?"

"Right now, all we know of is Logan," Stefan told his girlfriend's sister quietly. "But that could easily change. But I'm doing everything to protect Elena and I will help protect you, too. I promise, I'm not the enemy here."

The teenager wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Vampire protection from a vampire?" She scoffed. "Talk about irony right there." Lauren's eyes moved back to Elena, where she paused for a moment and then finally sighed. "So…I guess Bonnie's a supernatural entity as well? She really is a _witch_?"

Elena nodded. "I'm sure she was going to tell you sometime, Lauren."

"Well, I've only been back for a week," the Gilbert girl said bitterly, giving both Stefan and Elena a sour smile. "I'm sure she didn't want to overload me with the notion that she has magical _powers_ now. Because…you know, that would be _weird, _right?"

"I know how you must feel about this," the other Gilbert breathed out, desperate. Lauren walked around the center island to the fridge so she could get a bottle of water and hydrate her still-in-shock mouth. "But you have to promise to keep this a secret, Lauren. The town _knows _about vampires and if they hear someone talking about it—"

"Your vampire boyfriend dies and this town actually becomes _normal_?" The two sisters stared at each other with somber glares, but there was nothing more that could be said. Elena could understand where the anger came from; it was a product of the fear inside that Lauren was very good at covering up. She always used to say that yelling at someone was better than cowering at them. It made sense she would take her own advice in the situation they were in.

But it wasn't a lack of words that stopped the conversation; it was the _beep _from Stefan's phone. He pulled it out quickly and his eyes skimmed the screen before he looked up at Elena.

"Damon found Logan in an abandoned warehouse just on the edge of town. I've got to go help him." Stefan's green eyes flickered to Lauren, but he found her just reaching inside of the fridge to grab a bottle of water. He could tell she was smart—she wouldn't go out of the house knowing what she did now. In some ways, her finding out was a blessing in disguise.

As Stefan turned towards the door, Elena chased after him. "No, Stefan. I'm coming with you."

"Elena, you can't. You'll get hurt."

"I don't care." Elena left him no choice when she pulled on her jacket and grabbed her keys. Stefan wanted to protest, but he couldn't find the will or the time. He would just have to make sure that he was careful with her around; he couldn't get out of control and he couldn't let her get hurt.

"Wait a second!" Lauren shouted as Elena and Stefan walked the entrance hallway to the door. Lauren followed quickly behind, a cold bottle of water in her hand. "You're just gonna leave me here with a vampire psychopath out for me?"

"There's a gun in the closet. It's full of wooden bullets," Elena assured her sister, turning around so they were face to face. Lauren's face turned red with anger and Elena shook her head. "I'm sorry, Lauren. Just stay inside. We'll talk about it when I get back."

"Elena, don't—" But it was too late. Elena was already gone, fleeing the house on Stefan's tail risking her own behind because of some _boy_. Lauren almost threw a fit thinking that this was all over some drop-dead (no pun intended) gorgeous supermodel-like teenager. She appreciated Stefan's looks just as much as the next girl, but to risk her life for him? Absolutely not.

This was what went on through Lauren's head as she pondered quietly to herself and sat down on the stairs by the front door with the gun full of wooden bullets hanging in her hand. She didn't know how to work a gun, but she figured that she would have to learn now, what with Elena bringing the immortal into their home. Sometimes, she didn't understand her fraternal twin. She must've gotten the smart half of the embryo or something because Elena definitely wasn't thinking this through. But what bothered Lauren was that Elena didn't normally do things like this—she went to school, she rode the wave of the social structure to the very top, and she dominated at being the normal, high school teenager that she'd always been. What had changed in those months she was gone? Was it her fault that Elena liked to live on the edge these days? It was like what she'd heard from Aunt Jenna about Jeremy and his adventurous drug expo.

Maybe a few months at the Newman Academy would do her siblings some good.

It was only a half an hour until the sign of danger appeared at her door—a continuous rapping on her door that scared the living daylights out of Lauren. She stood immediately and gripped the gun with a sweaty, clenched fist. The banging on the door continued and, all of a sudden, she heard a voice behind it.

"Come on!" Damon grumbled from outside the house. "Lauren! Open the goddamn door!" Lauren cautiously stepped up to the front door, which was vibrating from Damon's loud rasps. "Come on! I can _hear _you breathing in there, open up! I need to get inside and I can't kick down the…"

He suddenly groaned, as if repressing a pain. Lauren found the sound to be sickening and painful, so she cautiously opened the door. Damon ended up falling inside, collapsing onto the floor as Lauren gasped and moved away from him. The elder Salvatore was bleeding from the center of his chest, the color of blood staining his white hands. Lauren didn't even bother closing the door.

"Is that _blood_?" she screamed and dropped to the ground beside Damon. He only groaned in response, the pain worsening with every breath he took. "W-What…how…?"

All of a sudden, there was a gust of wind and Lauren immediately rose with a sharp gasp. Logan Fell stood at the threshold of her home, unable to pass since he was not invited. The Gilbert girl pointed her gun at the vampire with shaking hands, and at this, Logan just laughed.

"Come on, Lauren." Logan pressed himself up against the threshold but was still unable to pass. "Invite me in."

The teenager stood there, completely frozen. On the floor, Damon groaned out, "Don't do it, Lauren. Do _not _invite him in."

"I can wait all night," Logan promised her, snarling the words. Lauren's breath shook.

"Yeah, but from what I understand, you can't wait until morning."

"Not yet. But I _will _get that daylight ring."

Suddenly regaining the feeling back in her fingertips, Lauren squeezed the trigger of the wooden bullet gun with her eyes closed and found that she shot a few rounds. She didn't know if any had hit Logan, but she found herself opening her eyes slowly to a quiet home—or, as quiet as it could be with Damon's writhing beside her.

"Did I shoot him?" the teenager asked aloud, nervously looking down at Damon, who was so injured that he just rested on the floor, exhausted.

* * *

"You've got to pull it out," Damon told her through his teeth as he sat on the couch half-naked, his chest completely exposed to Elena's twin. She hesitated above his wound from her seat at the coffee table, unaware of how to remove the piece of wood that was lodged in Damon's chest cavity, just scraping the surface of his heart. "Lauren!"

"I-I don't know how to do this!" she screamed at him, her hands shaking. Inevitably, her head shook with them. "I learned about vampires two hours ago and now you're ordering me to take a fucking piece of _wood _out from your heart? Give me a break!"

Damon realized the pressure he was putting on her, so he exhaled slowly and hissed through his teeth in the nicest tone possible. "Lauren, I'm gonna need you to reach inside and pull the piece _straight _out. It cannot move _one _inch or you'll kill me. Think you can handle that?"

Her eyes widened. "No! No, I _can't _handle that!"

"Oh, just pull the goddamn thing out!" the elder Salvatore barked, causing her to jump from the shift in tone. She didn't make a big deal of it, however, but the order caused her to lean forward and do what he asked. She hovered over him, and had Damon not been writhing in agony from the small wooden part lodged in his heart, he would've taken a second to appreciate the position they were in or make some sort of innuendo. Instead, he was too focused on her killing him to really make light of the situation.

Lauren dug her fingernails into Damon's flesh, causing him to scream and her to wince. Instead of stopping, she barreled through and ripped the stake out clean, shutting her eyes while she did so just in case she actually _did _kill Damon. She didn't know what she expected from a dead vampire, but she realized that he wasn't dead when she heard him scream loudly and then cease, breathing heavily from the pain.

The teenager breathed out a sigh of relief. "Good. I didn't kill you."

Damon scoffed. "That would've been unfortunate." He leaned his head against the back of the couch and took a moment for himself. His groan was angry now. "I _hate _that Logan dick. I can't wait to rip him _limb _from _limb_ and feed him to the wolves where he belongs. Bastard."

"He's the one who staked you?" Lauren inferred, holding the wooden piece between her bloody fingertips. Damon snorted in agreement. "This guy is _seriously _hardcore. All over a stupid daylight ring."

"Daylight rings aren't stupid. Stefan and I are lucky to have one." He leaned forward on his knees and tried to regain his breath. Damon's eyes turned up as he watched Lauren set the bloody wooden piece down on the coffee table in disgust. "Speaking of, I heard you have a bit of an eavesdropping problem."

"I learned that vampires are real tonight. That you're one of them." She turned back at him with a frown. "You can let me off the hook for eavesdropping, don't you think?"

Damon kept her gaze for a moment, trying to get into her head. He could see the resemblance between her and Elena, but he couldn't _feel _it. She was too different, and she was definitely handling things in a different way. Instead of acting like Elena and immediately hating him right off the bat, she actually seemed like she didn't mind him.

Then again, she didn't know about all the people he killed. That was bound to change a person's opinion.

The vampire sighed. "You'll get over it. Elena did."

"I'm not Elena." She scoffed. He narrowed his eyes playfully.

"I know."

The two stared at each other for a while before Lauren exhaled heavily and stood up from the coffee table. She glanced down at him as he tried to move himself, getting over the pain from his wound. "Is there something that can help you…heal?"

His eyes drifted up to her and skimmed over the length of her neck to the veins that were pumping blood as they spoke. "Are you offering?"

It took only a few seconds for her to figure out what he meant by the outburst, and she shuddered to herself before shaking her head tensely.

"No. I'm not." She moved towards the kitchen. "I'll get something to…clean that up."

Damon didn't realize what she meant before he looked down to see all the blood on his chest from the wound, some of them blood fingerprints from Lauren when she ripped the stake out. The Gilbert walked to the kitchen, washed her hands, and wet a paper towel to help him with the blood that stained his chest. There would be no way to get the blood out of his shirt until he washed it, but she wasn't a housemaid.

Well…she wasn't a nurse, either, but it seemed that she'd become a lot of things she wasn't in just over two hours.

By the time Lauren had finished helping Damon clean himself up and get him acceptably dressed to go outside rather than being half naked, Stefan and Elena had returned home, defeated. They had obviously had no luck tracking down Logan because the bastard had shown up at the Gilbert house. The second Elena and Stefan saw Damon, they started to piece everything together—the bloodstain on his shirt, the paper towels on the coffee table, and Lauren's distressed face were evidence enough.

"We need to take this son of a bitch _down_," Damon growled through his teeth, looking between Stefan and Elena. "And I don't care who gets in the way this time."

"Damon, we'll figure out a way," Elena assured him. "One that doesn't involve collateral damage."

"I think we're _way _past the point of collateral damage, Elena! The guy was inches away from killing me tonight!"

"Well, who's fault is that?" the teenager pointed out, earning Damon's distaste for the moral human to grow. He didn't like being challenged, let alone undermined. Elena sighed and turned to Lauren. "Are you okay?"

The twin crossed her arms. "No. You basically left me in our house—alone—with some gun loaded with wooden bullets and expected me to know what to do. Then I had to take a piece of wood out of a vampire or he was going to die. I'm not _okay_."

"Lauren—" Elena complained, but her twin just shook her head and brushed past Elena and the Salvatore brothers, refusing to listen. She grabbed the tennis bag at the door that she'd neglected to put away and slung a jacket on her arm.

"No, Elena. I don't want to talk about it anymore." She opened the door, the thought completely slipping her that she could potentially be in danger. "I'm going to the courts. If an evil, psychopathic vampire looking for a daylight ring tries to murder me, I'll call you."

Elena didn't have time to respond when her sister slammed the door shut, more furious than she'd ever been.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review. **

* * *

**Guest: **Thank you!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **Yep. Things are getting super intense.

**Ellie: **Thanks! Yeah, I totally agree. Damon magically being in love with Elena was just out of place and super fast. I feel like she'd annoy him if they were staying true to his character. Thanks again, I tried to make sure she didn't cross any emotional boundaries or anything like Jeremy did in 1x18 because I don't want her to be that bad of a person. Sorry about Obliteration, I deleted it because I lacked motivation on my own accord and I felt like it was basically TVD just without the doppelgängers so it was kind of obsolete. But I appreciate you reading it, not a lot of people did.

**xummy10: **Here's what happens next! Thanks for reviewing!

**vampangel25: **Here's the update! Thanks for reviewing!


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